Jessica Molaskey

With Ray and Tom Kennedy at The Cabaret in The Savoy Room

Jessica Molaskey's appearance at the Savoy Room cabaret series at the Sheldon this past weekend [December 7 - 10, 2006] was billed as a solo, but it would really have been more accurate to call it “an evening with the Molaskey-Kennedy Trio”.

Pianist Ray Kennedy and his brother Tom on acoustic bass were such an integral part of the show that Molaskey treated them more as equal partners than as accompanists. They opened both of the evening's sets with instrumental versions of “I Can't Give You Anything But Love” and “I've Got Rhythm”, respectively, that drew well-earned applause. Both Tom and Ray had extensive solo breaks during those sets as well.

That's an approach more often seen in jazz clubs than cabaret shows and very much consistent with Molaskey's approach to the act. Her choice of music is more wide-ranging and performance style more improvised and jazz-oriented than one might expect, given her extensive musical theatre credentials.

Her style is also more intimate than you might expect. There's no Broadway belting here (although I suspect she's perfectly capable of it). Instead, Molaskey projects a kind of cool, '50s hipster image, combines it with a supple and limpid voice, and wraps the whole thing up in a casual and self-effacing package that's well nigh irresistible.

Equally irresistible is her choice of material. It includes a respectable number of Great American Songbook items, including Depression-era classics like “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob Bobbin' Along” (which I haven't heard in many years) and a version of “Hey, Look Me Over” (from the 1960 Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh flop Wildcat, where it was more or less sung by Lucille Ball) that inserts a few lyrics from “Big Spender”. But there's also a bossa nova version of Billy Joel's “Sadness or Euphoria” and “Walkin' After Midnight”. That was a big hit for Patsy Cline in 1957, as some of us - and you know who you are - may recall. When was the last time you heard those on a cabaret program?

There's also a higher than usual percentage of ballads, some witty contemporary numbers by the always-wonderful Dave Frishberg and Molaskey herself (“My Attorney Bernie” and “Adam and Eve”, respectively), and some rarely-heard oddities like “You're a Builder Upper” (a Harburg/Arlen/Ira Gershwin collaboration from the 1930s revue Life Begins at 8:40) and Peggy Lee's “Everything's Movin' Too Fast” - just as true today as when it was first recorded in the 1940s.

In short, Jessica Molaskey's appearance this past weekend was and evening filled with unexpected pleasures and delivered with solid musicianship on the part of both Molaskey and the Kennedy brothers. Let's hope they make it back here soon.

Next in the Savoy Room cabaret series is singer/songwriter Spencer Day. January 18th through 21st, 2007. For ticket information, call 314-535-1700.

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